1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mechanism for inserting wired terminals into a connector housing, and more particularly to a mechanism for inserting wired terminals into a connector housing for inserting terminals crimped to wires forming of a wiring harness of an automobile, a copying machine, or the like, automatically into a connector housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
A fabrication process of a wiring harness composed by bundling a plurality of coated wires includes various steps of measuring and cutting wires, stripping insulated sheaths at ends of wires, crimping terminals and bared wire ends together for contacting, inserting terminals into a connector housing, bundling the wires assembled in the connector housing, or the like.
Each fabrication step of a wiring harness conventionally depended on manual labor, but it is recently demanded to automate the process. To meet such demand a mechanism for inserting wired terminals as shown in FIG. 19 was disclosed, for example, in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 313872/1989. In this structure, the front end portion of a wire A and a wire crimped portion B1 of a terminal B crimped to the front end of the wire A are set opposite to a terminal insertion port of a connector housing C in a state being clamped respectively by a wire clamp 101 and a terminal clamp 102. The clamps 101, 102 are brought closer to the connector housing C for inserting the front end of the terminal B into the connector housing C, and when the foremost end of the terminal B is inserted somewhat into the connector housing C, clamping of the terminal B by the terminal clamp 102 is cleared, while the wire clamp 101 is further brought closer to the connector housing C with the terminal clamp 102 set aside, so that the terminal B is inserted into the specified position of the connector housing C.
Recently, a lay-out board is used for automating the fabrication steps (see the Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 61489/1986).
The lay-out board is used for laying out the wire of which configuration is hard to specify according to the wiring configuration of the wiring harness, and the wire is stopped by stopping means on the way. Besides, for the ease of stripping step or crimping step, the front end portion of the wire is clamped by a clamp member disposed outside the lay-out board.
When automating the fabrication steps by using such lay-out board, the prior art shown in FIG. 19 could not be applied directly. That is, in order to insert the terminal B into the connector housing C, it is necessary to move the wire A and terminal B toward the connector housing C by a specified stroke, it is required to allow movement of the wire A and terminal B toward the connector housing C by slacking the intermediate portion of the wire A or sagging in a U-shaped form. However, in the state of laying out the wire A on the lay-out board and clamping the front end portion A1 of the wire A by the clamp member, a sufficient stroke for inserting the terminal B into the connector housing C is not obtained.
Furthermore, the terminal inserting step cannot be automated only by slackening in order to obtain an insertion stroke of the terminal B. That is, when inserting plural terminals B into the connector housing C, the wire A consecutive to the terminal B inserted already in the connector housing C (hereinafter called the inserted terminal) may intersect the terminal B consecutive to the wire A clamped by the clamp member (hereinafter called the non-inserted terminal), depending on the positioning of the terminal B of the laid wire A and the terminal insertion port of the connector housing C. In this case, the wire of the inserted terminal interferes and the non-inserted terminal cannot be held by the terminal clamp 102. This causes disablement of automatic insertion of the terminal B into the connector housing C.
In addition, the following problem also makes it difficult to automate the terminal inserting process. That is, in the terminal crimping step by crimping the wire crimping part B1 formed on the terminal B, the front end of the terminal B may be bent up or bent down(see double dot chain line in FIG. 19) from the crimped part as the bending point P. When such deformation of terminal B occurs, because the terminal clamp 102 is designed to hold the wire crimped part B1 of the terminal B at the bending point P to insert on the basis of the holding position, a misalignment occurs between the front end B2 of the terminal B and the connector housing C, and also because of the narrow gap of the two, the terminal B may not be inserted into the connector housing C.
If the wire A of terminal B side from the portion clamped by the clamp member is bent, the same problem of misalignment occurs. This trouble is particularly evident in a device for inserting the terminal B into the connector housing C only by the wire clamp 101. If there is provided with the terminal clamp 102 for clamping the terminal B, a clamping error of the terminal B may occur, thereby sometimes making it impossible to insert the terminal B into the clamp housing C.
It is hence a primary object of the present invention to present a mechanism for inserting wired terminals capable of inserting terminals of wires laid out on the lay-out board securely and automatically into a connector housing.